Ensembles, I love ’em! They are hard to coordinate and take a lot of patience during rehearsals. I have done what you do, students split lesson times. But only after each has their part learned fairly well. I always play the other part, up until then so they know what the whole thing should sound […]
Studio Ideas
Music History Timeline
Several of my student’s moms commented on how much they liked the timeline that I used for our listening activity last week. This is one of the best timelines I’ve found! I love that it incorporates not only music history, but also little glimpses into other things going on in the world. Surprisingly, the timeline […]
Organizing with Storage Pockets
One thing that I highly value is organization. I don’t function very well when things are cluttered, so I am always looking for better and more efficient systems that will help maintain order with minimal effort. An area where I have not developed a good system is with the variety of flashcards and small paper […]
Re-igniting Enthusiasm – Strategize and Systematize
Most of us teach because we love playing music, we love working with students, and/or we just love teaching. Few of us run studios because we just love doing recordkeeping, filing taxes, and handling other aspects on the business-side of things. I will confess, however, that I love the challenge of strategizing and coming up […]
Organizing Printed Music
Most of us music teachers have advanced well beyond the stage of OPBS (Overflowing Piano Bench Syndrome) into OBSS (Overflowing Book Shelf Syndrome). Books and sheet music are piled onto shelf after shelf, and it is a well-kept secret as to which book or piece is in which stack. 🙂 I just received an e-mail […]
Computer Lab Signup Sheet
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve instituted a rather informal computer lab option in my studio this semester. Students can opt to sign up for an additional 15 minutes in the computer lab either before or after their lesson time. This is a simple, generic form I created for the students to sign up […]
